Bitcoin rallied above $73,000
There’s never a dull moment onchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:
Bitcoin surged past $73,000 on Wednesday. Also, crypto ETF inflows came roaring back, and a Wall Street giant predicted big things for BTC.
What prediction markets are saying will happen with crypto. The markets that BTC will hit $100,000, bitcoin will outperform gold, and more.
The record revenue posted by a major BTC miner. And more key stats from around the cryptoverse.
MARKET BYTES
Bitcoin rallied above $73,000 on Wednesday
Markets of all kinds have been rocked with volatility since the conflict in Iran escalated over the weekend. But crypto has been holding up better than most other asset classes.
On Saturday, BTC dropped as low as $63,000 before ticking back upward toward $70,100. Stocks took an opposite journey on Monday, with prices briefly bouncing upward after markets opened before dipping alongside almost all major non-crypto assets
By Wednesday, BTC had spiked past $73,000 as ETF inflows surged, and other major tokens, including ETH, SOL, and XRP, also saw gains.
“Capital may be rotating back into crypto as gold takes a back seat,” as one analyst told Bloomberg. “Gold doubled while Bitcoin was cut in half, and against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions, sanctions, war, money printing and widening budget deficits, Bitcoin feels like it’s been left for dead relative to other assets. That kind of positioning can flip quickly when sentiment turns.”
Here’s more news you should know…
Crypto ETF inflows surged back
After shedding around $1.8 billion in capital in early 2026, spot BTC ETFs have notched substantial inflows over the last week, with institutional investors seemingly turning to the asset class as geopolitical tensions rise.
On Monday, the seven U.S.-based bitcoin ETFs tallied inflows of $458.2 million, led by the $263.2 million poured into BlackRock's IBIT fund.
"What makes this particularly notable is the divergence from retail sentiment," BTC Markets Crypto Analyst Rachael Lucas told The Block. "[Institutions] appear to be positioning for a macro recovery and are leaning on Bitcoin’s structural fundamentals."
Alt weekly… Many ETFs holding smaller tokens also flipped positive. “Spot Ethereum funds reported a daily net inflow of $38.7 million on Monday, while Solana ETFs attracted $17.4 million and XRP ETFs saw roughly $7 million in net inflows,” noted The Block.
JP Morgan predicts BTC will hit $266,000
Bitcoin prices are poised to surge in the coming months once the crypto market bill known as the CLARITY Act is passed in Congress, according to a new report from JP Morgan.
While some stablecoin provisions are still under debate, most parties seem to agree the CLARITY Act will pass in some form later this year. As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong put it recently, a solution could be reached “within a few months.”
The bill’s passage, JP Morgan analysts suggest, could trigger a slew of new catalysts for crypto, including reducing the “compliance burden” for new tokens, making fundraising for new projects easier, and increasing institutional participation in crypto.
How high could BTC go? The bank’s long-term target for BTC is $266,000, with analysts predicting that markets could pivot out of currently elevated gold and into BTC.
CRYPTO BALL
What prediction markets are saying about crypto
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are exploding in popularity. The biggest platforms saw more than $5 billion in trading volume last week, and the “wisdom of crowds” perspective they offer about topics ranging from sports to politics have become a key way that journalists, analysts, and investors understand trends. In a new report, even the Federal Reserve has said that prediction markets like Kalshi can be a “valuable” tool for researchers and policymakers.
When it comes to predicting where crypto markets might go next, what are these platforms currently anticipating?
Here’s what you need to know, based on Coinbase Prediction Markets activity as of Wednesday afternoon.
How low will BTC go this year?
What the markets say: So far, traders on Coinbase have placed more than $2.1 million in predictions on how low bitcoin’s price might reach in 2026.
Traders have assigned the highest markets (69%) to bitcoin dipping below $60,000 again in 2026. Conversely, traders have assigned the lowest markets to bitcoin reaching below $40,000 (33%) before the end of the year.
What market watchers are saying: When BTC was trading near $60,000 last month, analysts at Bitwise said they believed bitcoin still had room to fall and hadn’t hit its “cathartic bottom.” And CryptoQuant, a well-cited analyst on social media, said they believe bitcoin’s ultimate bear market bottom will be around $55,000.
Will bitcoin outperform gold in 2026?
What the markets say: Traders have currently placed more than $100,000 in predictions on whether BTC will outperform gold this year. Currently, the market believes there is just a 30% chance for BTC to outperform gold, versus a 70% chance for gold to outperform bitcoin.
What market watchers are saying: Gold outperformed bitcoin significantly last year, rising by more than 55% while BTC ended the year down around 26%. The trend has persisted so far in 2026, with gold already up more than 20%, to $5,340 per ounce, while BTC has seen a more than 20% haircut as it sits near $70,000. Amid rising geopolitical risks, analysts are expecting gold to rise to at least $5,500 in the coming months, and JP Morgan said it believes gold could hit $6,300 by the end of the year.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly seen as undervalued at current levels. A recent survey of financial institutions by Coinbase found that more than 70% thought bitcoin was undervalued when it was priced around $85,000 in January, and analysts have also said that BTC is undervalued in relation to gold, which is seen by some as “overextended” on its current rally.
How high will BTC and ETH get in 2026?
What the markets say: Traders so far have placed more than $2 million in predictions on how high BTC will get in 2026, and $1.23 million in predictions on how high ETH’s price might go.
For Bitcoin, traders are the most confident that BTC will top $99,999.99 before the end of 2026, with a 41% market being assigned to that outcome, followed by a 30% market for BTC to top $109,999.99.
Traders are most confident that ETH will top $3,500 or $3,750 this year, with those prices having 44% markets and 33% markets respectively.
What market watchers are saying: Despite crypto’s bearish stretch, there are still a number of analysts with bullish outlooks for BTC in 2026, including: Bernstein ($150,000); Tom Lee ($200,000-$250,000); and Bitwise (new all-time highs). Ethereum has a less clear bullish outlook from analysts. But Standard Chartered, who cut their price target from $7,500, still sees ETH touching $4,000 by year's end, which is a near 100% gain.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
$647 million
The revenue posted by bitcoin miner Riot Platforms for 2025, an increase of 72% year over year at a time when "many rival miners struggled with weaker crypto prices," noted The Block. Like many mining firms, Riot is looking to diversify its business by embracing AI and data center infrastructure.
$200 million
Approximate value of BTC acquired by bitcoin-accumulating firm Strategy in its latest weekly buy, according to a new filing. And for its latest weekly purchase, ETH treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies reported buying around $100 million in ether.
19,997,188
Number of BTC — out of a total of 21 million — that had been mined as of Tuesday, with the 20 million milestone set to happen next week. Because BTC mining gets harder over time, it won’t all be mined for 114 more years.
TOKEN TRIVIA
What is proof of stake?
A
A way to verify data shared from another computer
B
A major consensus mechanism used by cryptocurrencies to verify new transactions, add them to the blockchain, and create new tokens
C
Identification cards for vampire hunters
D
The process by which networks of mining computers generate new bitcoin
Find the answer below.
Trivia Answer
B
A major consensus mechanism used by cryptocurrencies to verify new transactions, add them to the blockchain, and create new tokens
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